page_title: George Mathews (soldier)
section_title: Political career in Georgia
hierarchical_section_title: George Mathews (soldier) / Political career in Georgia
caption_attribution_description: Areas involved in the Yazoo-Georgia land scandal.
context_page_description: George Mathews was an American soldier and politician from the U.S. States of Virginia and Georgia. He was a brevet brigadier general in the Continental Army, the 20th and 24th Governor of Georgia, a U.S. Representative from Georgia, and the leading participant in the Patriot War of East Florida.
  Born in Augusta County in the Virginia Colony, Mathews was in early life a merchant and planter. As an officer in the colonial militia, he gained statewide fame for his role in the Battle of Point Pleasant of Dunmore's War. He was afterward elected to the House of Burgesses from Augusta County, but did not attend a session. On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he served as colonel of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army. He and his entire regiment were captured on October 4, 1777 in the Battle of Germantown. Mathews spent the next four years as a prisoner of war, including two years on a British prison ship. He was brevetted brigadier general at the end of the war.
  After the war, Mathews moved to the state of Georgia and was quickly elected governor of the state.
context_section_description: During Mathews' military tour of the south, he had been impressed with the opportunities for political and financial gain on the Georgia frontier. When the 3rd Virginia Regiment was formally disbanded on January 1, 1783, he quickly petitioned the Georgia government for land, and received 1,900 acres (770 ha) in Wilkes County. He liquidated his property and settled his business affairs in Virginia and headed to the new Georgia frontier. There he and his wife, Ann Polly Paul, built a log cabin in Goose Pond. They had eight children: John, Charles Lewis, George, William, Ann, Jane, Margaret, and Rebecca. His wife Ann Polly died a few years after their arrival to Georgia. Mathews briefly returned to Staunton, Virginia in 1790, where he married Margaret Reed, a widow. In 1793, Margaret went back to Virginia to visit friends and family, and when she later wrote to her husband to facilitate her return, he replied, "I didn't take you to Virginia, and I'm not going to trouble myself to go there and bring you back." The two never reconciled, and the Georgia legislature granted a divorce on February 3, 1797.
  On the strength of his military reputation, Mathews quickly ascended to the top of Georgia state politics. He was appointed appointed a judge in Wilkes County, and a town commissioner for Washington, Georgia. Two years later, on January 2, 1787, he was elected a member of the Georgia General Assembly; three days after that, he was elected 20th governor of the state for a one-year term. Mathews' brief term as governor was a successful one; he attended the 1787 state convention in which he voted ratify the United States Constitution, and left with the state in a position of stability. He was then elected to the House of Representatives for the 1st United States Congress. His term in Congress has been called "lackluster," owing in part to his 'frontier sensibilities' that were out of place in Congress. He was defeated for reelection in 1791, and launched a failed bid for the United States Senate the following year. However, by 1793, he had regained enough support to again be chosen the 24th governor of the state.
  His second administration was more tumultuous than his first. At this time, the State of Georgia struggled to defend its vast land claims in the western part of the state, and this lead to notable controversies during Mathews' tenure. In February 1794, General Elijah Clarke, a popular veteran of the American Revolutionary War, illegally established the Trans-Oconee Republic as an independent state on western state hunting grounds reserved by the federal Treaty of New York (1790) for the Creek Indians. President Washington pressured Mathews to remove Clarke and his settlers from the Creek lands, but Mathews initially ignored the pressure, sympathizing with Clarke's aim and being aware of Clarke's local popularity as a hero of the Revolution. However, the tide of public opinion eventually changed, and in September, Mathews authorized 1200 Georgia militiamen, acting in conjunction with federal troops, to surround and isolate General Clarke's fortifications, leading to Clarke's surrender.
  The Georgia legislature sought to relieve its burden of its unprotected western lands by encouraged purchase offers from private land speculators. When representatives from four private groups sought to buy 35 million acres extending to the Mississippi River at less than two cents per acre, Mathews initially rejected the proposal. However, the groups bribed many Georgia politicians to favor the bill, and this increased political pressure combined with waning popularity caused Mathews ultimately to accept and sign the Yazoo land bill. The public became outraged on learning the details of the bill, leading to protests to federal officials and Congressmen. Mathews, though he did not personally profit from the bill, became its public face. Jared Irwin and U.S. Senator James Jackson led the reform efforts. Irwin was elected governor of Georgia to replace Mathews, and on February 13, 1796, less than two months after taking office, he signed a bill
caption: The three areas that constituted the 1789 Yazoo land scandal. Mathews' involvement in the scandal lead to his political downfall.
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